No Lie More True
by Microraptor Glider
Summary: Iris pulls Barry into a lie in order to get a relative off her back. Turns out people didn't need convincing. Non-powered fake-marriage AU.


**A/N:** So a (long) while back, merdeandmore on tumblr commented that Barry and Iris can't do fake marriage because they already act so married. So, my brain decided to try to come up with something (which ended up likely being in non-powered au). This something was originally just supposed to be an extended headcanon, but obviously my fingers got the better of me. As such this wasn't very well planned out, and not beta'd.

* * *

Iris has an aunt (or rather an older relative her and Barry call aunt since neither bothered to keep track of seconds and removals) who always pressures the family kids into marriage, and Barry and Iris had been hearing from her at the biggest family events. Nothing specifically on them getting together, but that they should be keeping an eye out for someone to marry, that they shouldn't wait to long ect. Fortunately, she's distantly related enough that they hadn't had to talk to her in some time, though her nagging filtered through Joe and the yearly Christmas cards. Then, when one of the aunt's own children was about to have their marriage ceremony, an invitation appears in the West family home for 'Iris Allen and her husband Barry' to attend (Joe receives a separate one).

Iris was a bit surprised when she saw the invitation but thought that it would be a good way of getting the aunt off of their backs. Just pretend to be married for one weekend with people they rarely see. Still, she thought Barry would complain if given time, so she kept the invitation hidden for a while. Barry had always been uncomfortable with dating. Even as he had attempted to woo Becky Cooper-thank goodness that was over- he'd never been quite sure what to do with the attention and became embarrassed when she asked about it. Though she'd discovered over the years that he was secretly a romantic, she rarely got a name for someone he might be interested in, and he didn't always believe her when she said somebody might be interested in him.

She'd even managed to hold it out until they are ready to go in Iris's car, alone because Joe was making the trip by plane. Iris decided to spare both of them the horror of Barry's driving and took the wheel, so she didn't notice him ruffling through the stuff and finally pulling the invitation out. She did notice a sudden lurch in her peripheral vision, before he questioned, "What is this?"

"What's what?" She gave a quick glance in his direction. "Oh, that. It looks like Aunt Alexis got it into her head that we're married, and while I have no idea why, this is just the time to get her to stop bugging us about why we aren't married yet, and before you complain, I was going to tell you before we got to hotel."

Barry rolled his eyes and responded, "This is a terrible idea." as if she hadn't seen that coming "-I mean, who'll buy it? Me and… you."

Iris shrugged. "Aunt Alexis already does, and whoever helped her design and mail those cards believed her."

Barry fidgeted and looked out the window. "Surely, there would be an easier way." He looked down, over at Iris, then back out the window. "She'll bug us about not being invited."

"Well then, we'll just have to tell her that we wanted it to be a small, quiet affair." That finally elicited a laugh from Barry; Aunt Alexis was the antithesis of 'small, quiet affairs'. She never started anything, but she was always quite the gossip. And, no matter how much effort you were putting into planning an event, once Aunt Alexis arrived, she would make sure that either you or her put in the next five steps to make it the big thing. "And, I guess we'll have to come up with some stories if people ask questions, though if somebody asks for pictures, we're going to have to tell them that we'll send the pictures after we get home. Neither of us have the photoshop expertise to pull that off over the weekend." In truth, neither of them had the Photoshop expertise to pull that off at all, but she had connections with some photographers at Picture News who could work magic.

Barry sighed. "And, you really want to get her to stop."

"She brings it up every holiday season, and I'm not just talking Christmas. That includes Easter and my birthday. I'm twenty six. Its not like I have a foot in the grave, and even if I did, I'd want her to back off."

"And, do we know that Joe won't say anything?" Barry pushed.

Iris nodded. "I talked with him, and he won't do anything to help, but he won't do anything to mess this up." Iris took a moment to make a turn. "Please, do this for me."

"For you," Barry relented.

For the rest of the car ride, they came up with stories about what had happened. Iris's wedding dress was the traditional white and simple but also long and flowing. The main color otherwise was red in its various shades at Barry's requests, and Iris decided that gold would have made a good accent. Iris joked about finally being able to finally put someone else in an ugly bridesmaid's dress, and she thought she heard Barry mumble something about her being the most beautiful woman in the room anyway. That elicited a laugh from Iris, "That's another story to add to the bunch. Me being glad to get Linda and Joe's help with dresses because its not like you give honest advice anyways. I learned that preparing for junior prom."

"I'm honest," Barry replied.

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Sure. And, every dress in the store looked good on me, which I might have accepted, if I hadn't seen some of those dresses."

Barry did not have a retort for that, so they continued planning out their imaginary wedding.

Then, of course, they had to make their own invitation list. The family that lived close by would have been on the list if they had any guarantee that none of them would show up here, but the chances of that were next to none. They would have to deal with just Joe and some close friends, which both decided was just as well. Iris would invite Mason Bridge, who had been her professional mentor, and Linda park, who had welcomed her to the social aspects of the workplace. Iris's current boyfriend, Eddie, would not be mentioned for obvious reasons. Meanwhile, Barry didn't have many people from work, but he could invite some friends he met at S.T.A.R. Labs. He knew Ronnie would show up in a T-shirt, a nice T-shirt but a T-shirt nonetheless, while Caitlin would be dressed up beside him. Cisco would be in the middle of the well-dressed spectrum trailing along behind the two, and Professor Stein was never far off from . Unfortunately, there was a falling out with Harrison Wells, who would have been invited earlier.

Just when Iris thought they were done 'inviting' people to their small wedding, Barry had one more person to add. "Hal would wring my neck if he didn't get invited even to a fake wedding."

Iris scrunched her eyebrows together. "Your old college roommate? Do you guys even still talk?"

Barry shrugged. "Every once and a while. He's busy test flying planes by Coast City now, but he told me that he needed to come to my wedding."

"He didn't seem to be a wedding person. Didn't he say he would never get married."

"Oh, he said that," Barry conceded, "He also can put on quite a show. Well, it not all a show. Most people can't get him even thinking of marriage as even a remote option, but then he talks about Carol, and you know he'd think about getting a ring if they didn't break up so often. He's also willing to admit that even if he doesn't want to get married, he's not against other people doing it."

"He seemed nice enough, so why not?"

"He would make the after party interesting," Barry laughed.

"More so than Cisco and Linda? I thought they had it covered."

Iris saw Barry look straight at her and with a glance saw that he wore a deadpan expression. "You underestimate how interesting things were rooming with him."

For the rest of the car trip they came up with various stories. Some were to ridiculous to bother sharing such as Cisco bringing his brother along to provide the music. Or Ronnie setting up a grill in the middle of the church yard for the wedding party while Caitlin reminded him that he should do it somewhere else.

Others ended in debates such as who asked whom on the first didn't want to be the one because as much as going along with it had been her idea, she also had been avoiding thinking about it during the previous weeks and was still getting used to the idea of having Barry as a romantic partner. Now, one might expect that marriage was a bigger step that would cause more anxiety, but it was also an option so divorced from reality that pretending to be married for the weekend felt like make-believe. Meanwhile asking Barry out was actually more plausible and thus felt bigger.

Barry meanwhile insisted that he would never work up the courage to do it himself. That he'd be willing to arrange and plan out second and third dates, but that the risk of making that first move and possibly changing things forever would be too much. Iris tried to convince him to give himself more credit, but he held his ground. "We have a great friendship now, and even if I were to think you felt the same way, I wouldn't just be risking rejection but losing what we have as well by making things awkward."

Iris opened her mouth then closed it. She knew this was all in preparation for the wedding, but it suddenly felt too real. "I'll have asked you out then. We'd go to the old bowling alley together, and I would have kicked your ass."

"Don't we do that anyways? Except I typically beat you."

"Cause we both like it. I mean you know I'm not a big fan of Itallian," Iris justified. "And, sure you do, Barry, but if you can't accept the truth just tell yourself you let me win as a first date treat."

"How about that Sushi place you wanted to go to?" Barry offered. "I know it just opened, so it wouldn't fit the timeline, but the people at Jada's wedding won't know that."

Iris squished her lips together. She had been planning to bring Barry to that restaurant next week. She hadn't meant for it to be a date, not any more than any of their other outings had been, and now there was no way to bring it up without the air of romance. Even if she said no and Barry forgot the comment, she'd always remember it as a suggestion for a first date. "After the bowling where I win. That's non-negotiable."

"I think we have a deal," Barry agreed, smiling.

Late that night, they finally made their way into the town where the wedding was taking place, and they pulled up into the nearest motel that their gps could find. They got as good of a nights rest as they were going to get, and left the next morning for the wedding. Well, it wasn't quite that simple. Iris could feel a twinge of awkwardness between her and Barry that wasn't there before, but Iris guessed that it was less awkwardness than she would fell pretending to be married to someone else. The next morning there was also the obligatory 'Wow… You look amazing' once Iris walked out of the bathroom with her dress, and Iris rolled her eyes wondering if he ever tired of saying that. But, she still smiled and noted that Barry didn't look too bad in his own suit.

When they arrived at the wedding, Iris slipped her arm into Barry's for the support. It wasn't long afterwards that Aunt Alexis found then and practically yelled, "Congratulations! I knew you both would eventually find someone, but in each other? Well, I should have seen that coming." Alexis moved in for a hug, but, deciding not to separate the pair, pinched their cheeks.

Iris glanced at Barry before looking back at Alexis, "Well, it caught us off guard. But, I can say asking him on that date was one of the best decisions I've made."

"Oh, so you took the initiative." Alexis patted Iris on the arm, "Then, why didn't you take the initiative of inviting me to your wedding?"

"We wanted it to be a small affair," Barry croaked out, and from there they pulled out the stories they'd concocted to satisfy Aunt Alexis's curiosity. Fortunately it wasn't long before they fell into a rhythm answering the questions and even being able to stray away from their pre-made stories as if the event had actually happened.

But, if Iris decided to kiss Barry, just in case Aunt Alexis didn't buy it, who could blame her? And, if Barry melted into the kiss after his surprise, and if Iris enjoyed it more than she expected, she was within her rights to extend it longer than necessary.

Eventually Aunt Alexis wandered away to attend to the other guests, but in the moments leading up to the wedding and during the reception, people would come up to congratulate them, some of whom hadn't even heard the news from Aunt Alexis. Some even said that they had expected it.

Iris, of course, was not keen on having decisions made for her, and she still did not plan on getting married, at least any time soon. Yet, on the dance floor, with her arms around Barry's waist, and with her head leaning against, Iris decided to take a risk. "Maybe I could take you to bowling and sushi sometime."

Barry stopped swaying. He tensed. "As a friend or as… more?"

"More"

Iris felt Barry's hands fiddle with nervous energy, but his voice wavered with excitement. "You're not worried about making things awkward between us?"

"Barry," Iris pulled back with a smile, "We came here and acted like we usually did, except for a kiss which we both enjoyed. If anything, I'd say pretending made it more awkward."

To say that Barry's smile grew so wide that it nearly split his head open would be an understatement. He looked down at her lips, she nodded, and they kissed again. It lasted longer than the last and seemed to pass for an eternity as both parties adjusted their grip on each other, Barry's hands moving to cup Iris's face with his fingers in her hair and Iris's own moving up to the back of his neck.

Later Iris would discover that her father had at one point mentioned to Aunt Alexis that they acted like a married couple, and though she would be mad at him for doing so despite knowing how Aunt Alexis would react and not telling her this even after she'd received the invitation, for now she would be happy.


End file.
